Advice re dining plan

[michellekcm]

I'm now confused, so would love any advice!

We are going to DLP for 3 nights in July, DH, DD (age 3), and myself. My sister will be there for part of the time. When I rang up for a quote, I was recommended the half board plus plan, which I understood to mean 3 meals - lunch or dinner - at any restaurant except Inventions, Auberge, and Buffalo Bill.

That was fine, as I had planned in my head to eat at Blue Lagoon, Cafe Mickey, and one other, probably Walts, and then just eat at fast-food type places for the other meals.

When I booked, the reservations staff member asked why I hadn't booked the Premium, and mentioned all 3 of the above restaurants as being worth it. I have since looked at the reviews here, and it seems they might be. My initial thoughts had been that they were very expensive and probably not worth it.

So....is it worth it to do any or all of those? My daughter does love the Princesses, so I get that Auberge might be good, but is the food worth it too? Is Buffalo Bill worth it for a 3 year old, or will the show go over her head? I think we still want to do Cafe Mickey for those characters, but we could always do that as a lunch one day.

If I get the half board plus, can I just pay the difference at the premium restaurants if we only go to 1?

Totally confused now Thanks for any advice.

 

[Isila]

it all comes down to total cost of your meals. I was thinking of doing half board, but after counting the budget I saw it wasn't worth it. We wouldn't be saving money, we even pay more. And using vouchers face value isn't a good option. I'd suggest you browse menus, get idea of the current prices, do your counting and then decide.

 

[jothp]

Auberge is great for princess lovers and the food is good too. In the evenings inventions is a character buffet so if you decided to do that you might not need to do cafe mickey too. We did buffalo bills last year with a three year old. She watched the show and enjoyed it but we really went more for her older sisters.

You can use the half board plus vouchers towards the cost of a premium restaurant but you don't save any money doing that. The face value of the vouchers is just what you paid for them (worked out using the exchange rate at the time the brochure was printed). Be aware also that if you use the half board plus vouchers in some of the cheaper restuarants your vouchers will cost more than the cost of the meal. (You would be fine in cafe mickey, blue lagoon and walts)

 

[scottwb]

Just back, personally I will never use these vouchers again. Unless you can absolutely guarantee to eat at a restaurant every day that equates to the plan e.g. half board +, premium then you will lose money.

A couple of times we ended up eating at half board restaurants instead of plus and that is when you lose money, worse still, any extras you still have to pay e.g. ate at Agrabah, price E22, vouchers are worth E31 and there were seven of us. Ordered two coffees (E7.50) and they charged us for them. In other words they just swap the vouchers regardless of your food bill. Also, you can't use shareholders discount when using them at face value - we did this at inventions and they refused any discount on the difference.

Finally, you are restricted to only certain items from a set menu e.g. in cafe mickey, my daughter wanted a desert that was E7.50, the deserts with the set menu/vouchers were worth E9.50. I asked the waiter for a simple swap pointing out that the desert we wanted was cheaper than the set menu desert. Nope, couldn't do it and we ended up paying extra for the cheaper desert, it just seemed crazy to me.

Next time I will just set aside the money and use as cash and combine with the shareholders card.

 

[Isila]

It's good to get a review on these half board things. I thought these are no use unless you strictly eat in those restaurants. No saving, no fun...

Thanks for sharing

 

[Ms Poppins]

Just back, personally I will never use these vouchers again. Unless you can absolutely guarantee to eat at a restaurant every day that equates to the plan e.g. half board +, premium then you will lose money.

A couple of times we ended up eating at half board restaurants instead of plus and that is when you lose money, worse still, any extras you still have to pay e.g. ate at Agrabah, price E22, vouchers are worth E31 and there were seven of us. Ordered two coffees (E7.50) and they charged us for them. In other words they just swap the vouchers regardless of your food bill. Also, you can't use shareholders discount when using them at face value - we did this at inventions and they refused any discount on the difference.

Finally, you are restricted to only certain items from a set menu e.g. in cafe mickey, my daughter wanted a desert that was E7.50, the deserts with the set menu/vouchers were worth E9.50. I asked the waiter for a simple swap pointing out that the desert we wanted was cheaper than the set menu desert. Nope, couldn't do it and we ended up paying extra for the cheaper desert, it just seemed crazy to me.

Next time I will just set aside the money and use as cash and combine with the shareholders card.

Things must have really changed with these. We used them in 2009 and were able to offset any extra on drinks etc. Annettes even gave us a child voucher back as we hadn't spent enough.

The only difference though - we didn't eat from the set menu - we just ordered what we wanted and used the voucher at face value. I've just checked the brochure and it still states that you can use the voucher at face value in any of the restaurants.

As far as I'm aware, they can't be combined with shareholders discount.

I agree they're not the deal they once were - but the staff in the restaurants should certainly know the rules. I'd be sending off a wee email of complaint if it were me. They cost too much to be duped like that.

 

[scottwb]

We were able to use at face value i.e. inventions but when the restaurant was a buffet and the buffet price was cheaper than voucher face value then they just took the vouchers and wouldn't even consider using some of the difference as an offset against some additional items.

You lose out big time if you have the plus vouchers and end up eating in the standard restaurants.

 

[michellekcm]

Thanks for all the feedback. Will go and have a good look at where we want to eat and figure out if we can cancel the vouchers we've already booked if necessary. Or, make sure we eat at places that are worth it.

Thanks again.